Just a little note here about something I've been pondering.
I read Republican Gomorrah, and the author, Blumenthal, seemed to base a lot of his thoughts about the GOP on the ideas of the famous psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, who died in 1980 (so it's old stuff).
I found a book on this by Fromm called Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950).
Breaking it down:
Marx said "religion" is a narcotic of the masses.
Freud said religion is a neurosis (non-psychotic mental illness).
Freud said religion is a neurosis (non-psychotic mental illness).
Jung saw religion as a projection of self into an ideal.
Fromm broke it down further. He said there a TWO KINDS of religion, from the psychological viewpoint:
AUTHORITARIAN - The "higher power" sets up a duality because, being in charge, he is in the sadist position and the disciple is in the masochist position. So it is sado-masochist in that sense. The follower must punish himself to receive acceptance from his higher power. This dynamic can be observed in some religions (and in some religious politics, according to Blumenthal).
HUMANISTIC - Man is the ground of the religion. It is human-centered, as in Buddhism. Man sort of saves himself. It is not necessarily relational to a higher power.
I don't think Fromm provides enough, because I think religion is observable but generally beside the point when we are talking about Jesus, who he is, and what he means.
A religion is a kind of group-think structured around an object of worship, whether that is God or Marduk or Buddha. Even if the religion lasts for thousands of years as a practice, it is still temporal. It won't last forever. And it cannot, really, accomplish its purpose. It succeeds if it actually does good and it fails if it doesn't.
If Republicanism is a political religion, it is, yes, probably authoritarian in nature. That means that the Liberal is probably more humanistic in the religio-political approach he takes. The clash, here, is caused by this duality of thinking. And it's all just thinking. We (our party or religion) are better than they because we are true: either because we are authoritarian or because we are humanistic.
In Christ, we find both dynamics. God, the authority manifest in flesh, the human. There is no more master-slave relationship and neither is man greater than, equal to, or potentially God in the fullest sense. God and man meet in Christ. Religion crashes and burns. And Fromm has now figured it out; because he is dead.
Fromm broke it down further. He said there a TWO KINDS of religion, from the psychological viewpoint:
AUTHORITARIAN - The "higher power" sets up a duality because, being in charge, he is in the sadist position and the disciple is in the masochist position. So it is sado-masochist in that sense. The follower must punish himself to receive acceptance from his higher power. This dynamic can be observed in some religions (and in some religious politics, according to Blumenthal).
HUMANISTIC - Man is the ground of the religion. It is human-centered, as in Buddhism. Man sort of saves himself. It is not necessarily relational to a higher power.
I don't think Fromm provides enough, because I think religion is observable but generally beside the point when we are talking about Jesus, who he is, and what he means.
A religion is a kind of group-think structured around an object of worship, whether that is God or Marduk or Buddha. Even if the religion lasts for thousands of years as a practice, it is still temporal. It won't last forever. And it cannot, really, accomplish its purpose. It succeeds if it actually does good and it fails if it doesn't.
If Republicanism is a political religion, it is, yes, probably authoritarian in nature. That means that the Liberal is probably more humanistic in the religio-political approach he takes. The clash, here, is caused by this duality of thinking. And it's all just thinking. We (our party or religion) are better than they because we are true: either because we are authoritarian or because we are humanistic.
In Christ, we find both dynamics. God, the authority manifest in flesh, the human. There is no more master-slave relationship and neither is man greater than, equal to, or potentially God in the fullest sense. God and man meet in Christ. Religion crashes and burns. And Fromm has now figured it out; because he is dead.
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